Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

"They really enjoy playing chess."

The desert lord seemed to be lost in some kind of memory.

"Captain Lu Yuan and Vice-Captain Su Yan would carve a chessboard every time they reached a new safe point. Da Xiong and Tie Chui were responsible for keeping watch outside, while Xiao Qi watched from the sidelines. Every time Lu Yuan was about to lose, he would start causing trouble."

"You seem to know quite a lot."

"Because I'm always watching them play chess."

It pointed to a slightly protruding rock in the corner of the safe room.

"There's just enough room for one person to sit. They know I'm watching, but they never say anything. Sometimes Su Yan will deliberately slow down her moves, as if waiting for me to say something—but I've never said a word."

Why?

"Because I don't know what to say."

It withdrew its fingers, its silvery-white eyes reflecting the blurry lines of the chessboard on the table.

"Back then, I had never spoken to humans. I had lived alone in this desert for far too long, so long that I had forgotten how to use language. I could understand what they were saying, but I didn't know how to make sounds so that they could understand me too."

"So how did you learn to speak?"

"Lu Yuan taught me."

The desert lord's lips curled up slightly—the first time an expression that could be described as a smile had appeared on its face.

"The night before the final battle, he came to the top of the stone pillar alone to find me. He didn't urge me to join the battle, nor did he ask me why I had been secretly observing them without showing myself. He just sat by the water and taught me to speak, word by word."

It paused for a moment, then added.

"He taught me all night long. From dusk till dawn. When I could finally speak a complete sentence, he smiled and said, 'You're learning faster than I expected.' Then he went down the mountain with his teammates to the depths of the lair. That was the last time I saw him."

"What did he teach you?"

The desert lord turned to look at Ou Yun.

"My name is A-Yin."

Ou Yun scratched his head: "A-Yin?"

"He said my hair was silver, so he named me that. He also said it was the name of a cat he used to have back in his hometown—that cat lived to be nineteen, the longest-living cat in their village. He named me that in the hope that I would live a very, very long time."

"...This name is quite nice."

Ou Yun thought to herself, "Wow, there are two male leads?"

"...I think so too."

Leng Ruolan glanced at Ou Yun and could only agree.

Desert Lord Ah Yin stood up. "So from that day on, I've been called Ah Yin."

"Let's go, the road ahead is still long. We'd better get to the core of the lair before nightfall, where a monster that has been suppressed for three hundred years awaits you."

"Wait, why are there monsters too?"

Alexander's wearing a mask of pain; we've been grinding through monsters all this way!

Ou Yun comforted him, "How can you beat the game without fighting monsters?"

Then, Ah Yin casually remarked, "This is just a new desert lord; you should be careful."

"...?" As expected, everyone was stunned for a moment.

"Aren't you the Desert Lord?"

"It used to be me."

A faint sadness appeared on Ah Yin's face. "But after I was removed from the list, they introduced a new desert lord. That's why I've been hiding until now."

"..."

"..."

*

There's nothing else I can do.

The group had no choice but to continue deeper into the nest.

As you descend from the safe room, the passageway becomes wider and more eerie.

The cave walls were no longer covered only with glowing excrement minerals; large patches of purple crystals began to appear as well.

These crystals grow out of the rock wall, resembling the crystallization of some kind of mineral, but upon closer inspection, one can see a dark purple liquid slowly flowing inside the crystals.

Ah Yin stopped and gestured to everyone not to touch the crystals.

"It was formed from energy crystals that seeped from the Desert Lord's body during his slumber. Touching it will instantly absorb a portion of your life force; although not fatal, it will leave you weak for several hours."

"Isn't this a trap zone?"

Looking at the dense clusters of crystals on both sides of the passage, Ou Yun asked, "How do we get across?"

"Follow me. There are safe paths between the crystal clusters, which I discovered hundreds of years ago."

Ah Yin took the lead and stepped into a narrow gap between the crystal clusters, her steps light and precise. "Remember my landing point, don't deviate by more than a fist's distance."

Everyone followed Ah Yin's footsteps and slowly made their way through the crystal cluster maze.

The coffee worms huddled together at the back of the procession, their reaction to the abyssal crystal clusters surprisingly calm—their scales only turned a pale pink, somewhere between purple and red, probably because they were both nervous and found the crystals quite pleasant to smell.

After walking for about twenty minutes, the crystal cluster area finally came to an end.

Ahead was a natural stone bridge spanning a huge fissure in the earth. The bridge was less than two meters wide, and on both sides was bottomless darkness.

A low, rumbling wind came from the depths of the fissure, mixed with a rhythmic throbbing—like a heartbeat, or like the breathing of some giant creature.

"Below is the core layer of the nest."

Ah Yin stood at the bridgehead, her long, silvery-white hair billowing high in the air currents surging from the depths of the fissure.

"It is also the place where the desert lord sleeps. It has been sleeping in the deepest part of this fissure for hundreds of years, occasionally waking up to devour the surrounding sandworms to replenish its energy, and then continuing to sleep."

"Why doesn't it just come out?"

Ou Yun then asked, "With its strength, wouldn't it be easy for it to run rampant in this desert?"

"Perhaps because it's afraid."

"What are you afraid of?"

"The one who's afraid of the snow-capped mountains."

Ah Yin thought about it.

"The Core Guardian atop the snow-capped mountain has single-handedly suppressed the Abyss Lord of the snow-capped mountain region for hundreds of years. Her power extends not only to the snow-capped mountain but also to the edge of the desert. The desert lord knows that once it leaves the fissure, the Core Guardian will sense its presence and then descend from the snow-capped mountain to find it."

Its voice became a bit more serious.

"For it, slumbering deep within the fissures is the safest strategy. The Core Guardian won't venture into the areas with the most concentrated abyssal energy, and it won't voluntarily step out of the Core Guardian's monitoring range. The two have maintained a fragile balance for hundreds of years—"

It slowly looked toward Europe.

"Until...you appeared."

"We...broke the balance?" Ou Yun scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"The balance was broken the moment you killed the forest lord."

Ah Yin shook her head. "The Forest Lord's energy has flowed back into all the other lords, including the Desert Lord. It's stronger now than before, but also more restless."

After all, according to the rules, whoever can kill the forest lord will come looking for it sooner or later!